Apple

10/24/2012

Showing up to your own funeral, Donald Trump, and Ozzie Guillen

Good morning!

Apple's iPad Mini is still getting a lot of buzz this morning. While the 7.9 inch tablet is not as robust as the current iPad (or the forthcoming update), the device can run all the apps made for the iPad 2 in the same resolution. It's also lightweight and can be held in one hand. Yet, it's not as small as a Kindle or a Nook, for example, which have been popular among women. Some analysts believe the iPad mini will be a big hit in the workforce. The price point also is not competitive from a consumer standpoint. At $329, it's a lot more expensive than either of the aforementioned tablets. A little lower price could have dealt a deathblow to other popular tablets. Still, the iPad Mini is likely to be very popular. Apple CEO Tim Cook noted at the event that the company has sold 100 million iPads since the rollout just a couple of years ago.

What is Donald Trump going to be tweeting about President Obama today? That is the burning question for Trump's 1.6 million Twitter followers. He tweeted yesterday about a big announcement today. Speculation is the message refers to Trump's promised "October surprise" involving President Obama. An Irish betting company is taking wagers on what the revelation might be, everything from "Obama is not American" to "Obama is an alien." My guess is he's going to offer President Obama a spot on Celebrity Apprentice should he lose the election.

Ozzie Guillen has been fired. He did not have a very good first year managing the Miami Marlins. It started off with his controversial comments about Fidel Castro, and just went downhill from there.

Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez has been sacked, this time by Eva Longoria. US Weekly described the split as an amicable parting of the ways. Just last month, Longoria, 38, revealed that the two were dating (after months of speculation). Sources say the split had more to do with lifestyle differences than anything else. Sanchez, 25, likes to go out, while Longoria is "more focused on her career and philanthropic work."

A man in Brazil is making news after showing up at his own funeral. According to reports, Gilberto Araujo was identified by his brother at the city morgue. The body was moved to his mother's house for a wake. A few hours before the funeral, a friend saw Gilberto walking down the street and told he was about to be buried. When Gilberto showed up at his own wake, "some people fainted and others were so scared they ran away. It was a big shock," a family friend told G1 Online. I bet it was. Authorities blame the mix-up on the fact that Gilberto and the actual dead guy, Genivaldo Santos Gama, look a lot like.

Yet another Gangnam Style video is trending this morning – this time it is Halloween style. A house in Virginia hung 8,500 bulbs outside their house and synced it up to the song

Another video that is popular this morning is one of ‘Honey Boo Boo’ who appeared to use her time on TV with Dr. Drew as naptime.

And finally, a video that is out of this world, so to speak. The Ohio State University Marching Band performed in the shape of a dancing alien and the DeLorean from Back to the Future on October 19th vs. Purdue.

10/23/2012

Horses and Bayonets, Apple and Hunter Pence

Good Morning!

After last night’s final debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, "horses and bayonets" is one of the top trends on the internet and on Twitter for Tuesday. The heavily searched term, is from President Obama’s response to Mitt Romney’s remarks about the navy being “smaller than any time since 1917”. Obama responded by saying, “You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed.”

While the debate as a whole didn’t break any records on twitter (only 6.5 million tweets, compared with 10.3 million tweets in the first debate and 7.2 million in the second), analytics from Topsy, the term “horses and bayonets” was mentioned on twitter nearly 60,000 times in one minute. According to the Huffington Post, the Obama campaign capitalized on the heavy traffic by buying the search term “Bayonets”.

Immediately following Obama's comments, a Horses and Bayonets Tumblr was created.

If you missed any of the debate last night, you can catch the full transcript here.

Lance Armstrong is also another heavily searched topic on the web this morning, after he was stripped of his Tour de France titles. As of Monday night, Armstrong’s twitter profile still mentioned that he was a 7-time Tour de France winner from 1999-2005, however early Tuesday, his bio simply reads: “"Raising my five kids. Fighting Cancer. Swim, bike, run and golf whenever I can."

Many people are also anticipating Apple’s announcement this afternoon. CEO Tim Cook will hold a presentation at 1 p.m. Eastern Time in San Jose, California. Analysts are expecting him to unveil a smaller iPad, which will measure about half the size of a regular tablet. This would make the “iPad mini” a direct competitor against Amazon’s Kindle and Google’s Nexus 7. While Apple has not said anything about the device, the price is expected to range anywhere from $250-330.

Another topic that is being discussed this morning are the San Francisco Giants, who shut out the Cardinals 9-0 last night to advance to the World Series for the second time in three seasons. One of the most-talked about moments from the game is Hunter Pence’s three-run double. Pence’s bat broke and hit the pitch a total of three times. If you missed the hit, you can watch it here.

09/28/2012

Apple apologizes for Maps app

Apple Maps has been panned and criticized since its launch with iOS 6, and
now we know just how bad it is. CEO Tim
Cook released an apology on Apple's website this morning, saying the company "fell
short" on its commitment to bring world-class products to its customers.

The letter is below:

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best
experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last
week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the
frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to
make Maps better.

We
launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we
wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such
as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps.
In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There
are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with
more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new
Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our
customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of
the feedback we have received from you.

While
we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like
Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites
and creating
an icon on your home
screen to their web app.

Everything
we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know
that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps
lives up to the same incredibly high standard.